Please be in prayer for us, and if you can help it means the world to us!
Dear Family and Friends,
Did you know it is estimated
that less than 10% of all orphan
children are adopted into evangelical Christian families? According to
current estimates, if only 10% more Christians in America would adopt,
it would be equivalent to providing homes for all the orphans in Eastern
Europe (1.5 million), Latin America (400,000), and the US foster care
system (150,000). Did you know that there are an estimated 17 million
orphans in over 40, 000 orphanages in China? That's more than double the
population of New York City.
God desires for orphans of all nations to be loved, cared for and
adopted into Christian families. What do we do with these statistics? Over and over again in Scripture God commands
us to care for the fatherless. And He reminds us that we were orphans once too, but by His grace He adopted us as His sons and daughters! Our family has been so clearly directed by God to adopt that we want to obey Him, and we also desire to give children a family that they otherwise would not receive. We are so thankful that God has written adoption into our family's story. We continue to be so blessed along this journey.
us to care for the fatherless. And He reminds us that we were orphans once too, but by His grace He adopted us as His sons and daughters! Our family has been so clearly directed by God to adopt that we want to obey Him, and we also desire to give children a family that they otherwise would not receive. We are so thankful that God has written adoption into our family's story. We continue to be so blessed along this journey.
When
we started this adoption last spring, we felt that God was asking us to
step out in faith again for another special needs adoption from China.
It seemed impossible, like we were at the foot of a mountain, staring
up, wondering how could we ever get to the top. But God was just asking
us to take one step at a time, and trust him. So, we did. One step at a
time, He has lead us to our two children who are waiting for us in
China. Georgia is our daughter, who is 3.5 years old, and Calvin is our
new son, 2.5 years old. They both were born
with Spina Bifida, which is a birth defect affecting the spinal cord
and backbones. We have had ups and downs in the journey, but God has
clearly made a path for our steps. He has made a way where there seemed
to be no way.
We estimated our total cost for
adoption fees, document
preparation, home study, airfare, travel, medical exams, orphanage
donations, immigration fees, etc. to be
$42,000. I know that seems like a big number, and it is.....but it
pales in comparison to the two precious lives that will soon have a
forever family, and who will soon hear the good news that is Jesus. We
know God is faithful and is leading us to trust Him. By
God’s grace and your help, we’ve been able to pay $37,000! The glory all
is God's as we could have never raised that much in 9 short months. We just received permission to travel this morning! In fact,
we are hoping to leave on January 23rd, which is only 9 days away. We still need the last $5000, which is basically travel costs, airfare, hotel, etc.
It’s hard on our pride to make
our needs known to the Body of Christ
around us, but we also know it’s Biblical to do so. If you feel led to
give you can donate directly to our agency, through this website https://store.swa.net/product_donation.aspx?prod_id=651&catid=0 You
must make sure you write in the comments that it is for the children
being adopted by the Ohler family for us to be credited the donation,
and for it to be tax deductible. And because of the short timeline in must be today, or you can also give directly to us
if you prefer anytime this next week. We are also very open to borrowing the funds if that is
something God would lead you to do. We appreciate your
friendship very much and are thankful for so many of you who have been
praying for us and helping us in our adoption of Georgia and Calvin.
Please continue to pray for our family, God does amazing things when his
people pray!
Thank you for prayerfully considering partnering with us on this journey. You are helping to paint a beautiful picture
of what it means to “do unto the least of these.”
of what it means to “do unto the least of these.”
In Christ,
Michael, Joy, Olivia, John-Michael, Hamilton, Abram, Vivian, Gideon, Georgia, and Calvin Ohler
WHOO HOOO !!! PRAISING GOD WITH YOU!!!!
ReplyDeleteYEAH!! So excited for you!
ReplyDelete